Rodgers rues Leicester set-piece woes as Achilles’ heel leads to Conference League exit to Roma

Brendan Rodgers says set-pieces have been Leicester’s “problem all season” after Tammy Abraham’s goal from a corner dumped the Foxes out of the Europa Conference League.

The Foxes qualified for the semi-finals in dramatic fashion after a late winner in the last eight against PSV.

Eintracht Frankfurt end West Ham’s European run on a night of red mist

There were no such heroics in the semis as Jose Mourinho’s side edged past Leicester to reach the final of the competition.

“Of course when you lose a second leg of a semi-final it’s disappointing,” Rodgers told BT Sport. “I thought the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic from both sets of supporters. It was a great arena to come and play in.

“In the second half we were much better. We imposed ourselves and made changes. In the first half it wasn’t aggressive enough. The players kept going until the very end but we couldn’t find that big chance. There wasn’t many in the game for both teams.”

A painful night. We'll come back stronger pic.twitter.com/cy38aQFgMD

— Leicester City (@LCFC) May 5, 2022

Leicester conceded another goal from a corner after struggling to defend set-pieces all season, with Rodgers saying his side’s Achilles’ heel “cost” them dearly.

“The corner… It’s been our problem all season,” he continued. “We have tried every structure in the box – man-marking and zonal – but clearly we lack physicality in the team to deal with certain situations consistently and that has cost us tonight.

“We really dominated the first leg and had opportunities so we always had it in the back of the mind that we might need to change it and get an extra body through the middle. The players responded really well second half.

“It’s been a great journey for us in Europe in the last